49ers linebacker Larry Grant awaits free agency

As much as 49ers inside linebacker Larry Grant loves his teammates, the Bay Area and his team’s chances of reaching the Super Bowl, he would have loved to play elsewhere in 2012.

A restricted free agent two months ago, Grant hoped to find a suitor willing to make him a starter. He knew that wasn’t going to happen in San Francisco, where he is the capable caddie to a pair of All-Pros, Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman.

Like the league’s other 41 restricted free agents, though, Grant didn’t receive an offer sheet, continuing a trend. Since 2009, only five restricted free agents have received offer sheets.

Grant, 27, understood the realities before free agency began.

“It wasn’t frustrating,” Grant said. “I had a real in-depth conversation with my agent and he told me how the restricted free agent market was – there was nothing that was going to be happening. So when I saw high-profile guys like (Steelers wide receiver) Mike Wallace not get many looks, I really wasn’t worried. I knew either way, if I was somewhere else or here, I was going to embrace the opportunity and make the best out of whatever position I’m in.”

Restricted free agents are players with three years of service who have expiring contracts. They can receive offers from other teams, but their original team has the right to match that offer. If the team doesn’t match the offer, it is entitled to draft-choice compensation, depending on the level of tender of the player.

If a team had signed Wallace, it would have had to forfeit a first-round pick. The price for Grant was a seventh-round pick.

The lack of an offer was good news for the 49ers, who didn’t have a replacement for Grant on the roster. Grant and special-teams standout Tavares Gooden, who played 12 defensive snaps last year, are San Francisco’s only backup inside linebackers with NFL experience.

With Grant back, the Niners keep a backup for $1.26 million who filled in admirably last year when Willis was sidelined with an injury. Grant had 29 tackles, two sacks and defended five passes in three-plus games. He capped his fill-in role by sealing a win at Seattle with a sack-and-strip of quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.

That performance suggested that Grant, who started eight games with the Rams in 2010, might have a chance to beat the long odds faced by restricted free agents. He will become an unrestricted free agent after the 2012 season.

“I’m on a great team and I know there’s a very good chance that we could go to the Super Bowl,” said Grant, who has a close relationship with Willis and Bowman, has family in the area and attended CCSF.

“As a competitor in this business, everyone wants to play. I’m not in a rush for anything. I know good things come to people who wait. I’m just going to be patient and hopefully my time will come, wherever it is.”